Russia's Gazprom keen on Vietnamese gas reserves

Russian energy company Gazprom said it was reviewing the prospects of further cooperation with Vietnam in the Asian country's offshore natural gas sector.

Gazprom Chairman Alexei Miller met in Moscow with his counterpart from PetroVietnam, Nugyen Xuan Son, to discuss reserves off the Vietnamese coast.

"In particular, they touched upon the joint actions offshore Vietnam as well as within gas production projects in Russia," Gazprom said in a Wednesday statement. "It was pointed out that the jointly developed Moc Tinh and Hai Thach fields located on the Vietnamese shelf would reach their full capacity by 2016 and would produce nearly 70 billion cubic feet of gas per year."

Both sides entered into a strategic partnership in 2009. Gazprom and PetroVietnam started commercial gas operations at the Moc Tinh and Hai Thach fields in October 2013.

Gazprom has been looking to expand into the growing Asian market in an effort to diversify an asset base tied to a European economy still struggling to grow.

In September, Gazprom Deputy Chairman Alexander Medvedev said Asia is "the most attractive market" for companies like his.

Russia is a world leader in terms of natural gas production and Medvedev said that, by 2030, the Asia-Pacific region will account for 25 percent of the total consumption of that resource.

Russian oil company Rosneft this week said it too was interested in Asian markets, saying it may look to Chinese partners to develop arctic reserve basins to fill a vacuum from U.S. supermajor Exxon Mobile.